Confederation - Dictionary Definition and Overview

Confederation :  (noun)
1: the state of being allied or confederated [syn: alliance]
2: a union of political organizations [syn: confederacy, federation]
3: the act of forming an alliance or confederation [syn: alliance]

Based on WordNet 2.0

Confederation : \Con*fed`er*a"tion\, n. [L. confoederatio: cf. F. conf['e]d['e]ration.] 1. The act of confederating; a league; a compact for mutual support; alliance, particularly of princes, nations, or states.

The three princes enter into some strict league and confederation among themselves. --Bacon.

This was no less than a political confederation of the colonies of New England. --Palfrey.

2. The parties that are confederated, considered as a unit; a confederacy.

Articles of confederation. See under Article.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

CONFEDERATION, government. The name given to that form of government which the American colonies, on shaking off the British yoke, devised for their mutual safety and government. 2. The articles of confederation, (q.v.) were finally adopted on the 15th of November, 1777, and with the exception of Maryland, which, however, afterwards also agreed to them, were speedily adopted by the United States, and by which they were formed into a federal @bod y, and went into force on the first day of March, 1781; 1 Story Const. Sec. 225; and so remained until the adoption of the present constitution, which acquired the force of the supreme law of the land on the first Wednesday of March, 1789. 5 Wheat. R. 420. Vide Articles of Confederation.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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